


Rest in Peace but Better

by lexathecandlevlogger



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: <3, AND GAY, Demons, Domestic Fluff, Eventual Happy Ending, F/F, Fuffy, Magic, Post-Chosen, RIP, Sharing a Bed, Slayage, Vampires, Witches, also, everyone who died is still dead, obvi, the usual
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:09:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22062331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lexathecandlevlogger/pseuds/lexathecandlevlogger
Summary: Post-Chosen and the new slayers, along with the elder slayers, relocate to Cleveland. They live in one house and it's a bit like living in a sorority (rip the boys, Xander, Giles, and Andrew). The younger slayers and Dawn go to school, Buffy works as a school counselor, Giles and Willow opened up a new magic shop, Xander's a contractor, and Andrew hasn't found his calling yet. And neither has Faith.
Relationships: Faith Lehane/Buffy Summers
Comments: 4
Kudos: 29





	Rest in Peace but Better

**Author's Note:**

> One month post-Chosen; post-Sunnydale. Willow has a new sleeping arrangement in mind and Faith is not happy about it.

“Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up!” Faith yelled as she ran down the stairs in her pajamas, a red tank top and black joggers. 

The windows along the wall revealed a gray-blue dawn sky and the Cleveland skyline in the distance. 

Storming into the kitchen, Faith asked, “What on earth are you doing?”

The three girls froze. Two were in mid-swing of a sword and the other, Kennedy, of course, stood on the counter, unballing her fists. 

“Um-” Kennedy began, but was immediately cut off. 

“Get off of the counter! It is,” Faith looked to the oven clock. “Four in the freaking morning! What are you doing?”

Kennedy rolled her eyes and hopped off of the island. That girl had some nerve unlike the other two. Vi and Molly sheepishly lowered their swords, avoiding Faith’s forbidding gaze. 

“Training,” Kennedy placed her hands on her hips. 

“Did you not hear the ‘four in the morning’ part? Could you not read the clock? Or look out the window?” Faith demanded, baffled. Even before Kennedy was an asset in saving the world she acted like everyone owed her something. Even though she was the one who requested Faith take over as leader, the little brat had zero respect for her authority. Any authority, for that matter.

“You all need to get back to bed before you wake-”

“Who? Buffy?” Kennedy raised her eyebrows. Buffy had slacked off being the bad cop since the only life or death situations were dealing with the occasional vampire, which is easy to tell who’s who. The only time she’s hard on the girls is when they don’t do their homework or skip training sessions to go hang out with the high school quarterback. God, Faith used to be like that. However, for Faith, she’s picked up the bad cop role, but only when they’re being irritating (which is most of the time. They’re teenage girls.)

“Me,” Faith replied, hands on her hips. “Again!”

Again, Kennedy rolled her eyes, but lowered her hands to her sides in defeat. 

“Upstairs,” Faith ordered. “Now.” The three girls hiked upstairs to their respective rooms. Which, really, was one of two rooms designated for the potentials. A four-bedroom family house in the suburbs of Cleveland was the only thing the gang could afford, though it wasn’t too bad. A few potentials to two of the rooms, one room for Faith and Dawn, one room for Giles and Xander, and the basement belonged to Willow and Buffy. Andrew got the pullout couch, but that’s what you get for being an ex-supervillain. It’s a miracle Andrew had never woken up due to Kennedy’s sporadic training hours. That boy could sleep through the end of the world (she’ll probably get to test that at one time or another.) The rest of the potentials who lived in Cleveland already lived there, so they had families and houses. They’d come over to the house in groups to train with the Slayers and have textbook lessons run by Giles. The girls living with the Scoobies had nowhere else to go, hence Faith and Buffy becoming kind of like their moms. 

Faith picked up one of the swords left on the kitchen counter (because that’s a normal thing to find on a kitchen counter in this household) and scoffed. The sky got brighter outside as Faith made herself a cup of coffee. Looked like there was no point in going back to bed. 

The morning went on as usual, expect for couple hour headstart for Faith. She will admit being able to take a shower without hearing pounding from the other side of the door and, “you’ve been in there for forever,” when it had really been only ten minutes, was nice. Faith snuck into her room, careful to not wake a sleeping Dawn, for a change of clothes and headed back into the kitchen to find Willow already making breakfast. 

“Hey, Red,” Faith said as she hopped onto the counter beside the stove. Willow cracked another egg into the skillet. Two eggs cracked, a million more to go. Slayer metabolism’s a bitch. 

“Oh, hey Faith,” she smiled. “How’d you sleep?”

“Great until your little girlfriend woke me up.”

The mix of pure confusion on the witch’s face was priceless. “My who what now?”

Faith laughed at the misinterpreted remark. “Her and two other girls decided,” she looked at a fake watch. “Four in the morning was the perfect time to wield very loud swords together.”

“Oh,” Willow sighed in relief, before tensing up again. “A-and she’s not my girlfriend.” 

Faith smirked and bounced off the counter. “Right, I definitely wouldn’t call the girl who’s been following you like a lovesick puppy while simultaneously being your very aggressive watchdog your girlfriend,” she teased. 

“Then I could say the same for you and Buffy,” Willow said under her breath, completely occupied by the sizzling eggs. 

“What?” Faith spun around and asked defensively. 

“Nothing,” she said in a high pitch tone, remembering slayer hearing is a thing. 

“Of course I’ll defend B, it’s a slayer thing, but I’m not her freaking girlfriend! Ew!” Faith said as she frantically shoved a handful of Chex Mix cereal into her mouth. “And if you ever make a joke like that to her I’ll let her know where you and Kennedy frisked it up last week,” she added, using the time she caught Kennedy going down on Willow in Buffy’s bed as a threat. They claimed they were looking for a lost stake, but Faith saw too much already. 

Willow turned to Faith and spent maybe a good minute trying to form a sentence, but all she came up with was a distraught, “Shut up!” before Buffy walked in. 

“Who shut up?” Buffy asked in a cheerful, innocent tone. “Ooh, eggs!” she leaned over the skillet and used two fingers to pick up part of an egg from the pan and popped it in her mouth. 

“Hey, you squished my egg,” Willow whined. 

“Sorry, hungry, in a rush, gotta go,” Buffy replied, opening the fridge and screwing off the cap of the orange juice. 

“For what?” Willow questioned. 

Buffy made a little moan as she finished a long sip out of the carton. “The school. Don’t want to be late to counsel those kids.”

“They really gave you the job? I thought that was a stretch,” Willow said. 

Buffy faced turned sour. “Yes, they did. Why?”

“Well, last time you worked at a high school, it kinda blew up.” Faith said, feeding herself another handful of cereal. With a full mouth, she added, “And when you were a student the school blew up. The same school!” Holding two fingers up, she mumbled, “Twice.” 

Gasping, Buffy replied, “I was a very good counselor! So much so Robin wrote me a recommendation. Granted I begged him and promised to stay as far away from him as possible.” 

Willow laughed. “The break up was that bad, huh?”

After another sip, Buffy replied, “Why don’t you ask Faith?”

“I-” Faith stuttered. “H-he went to live with a friend or something in LA. I didn’t tell him to,” Faith shrugged. 

“Have you broken the habit of screwing my boyfriends, or do I gotta warn the next one?” Buffy asked, putting the orange juice back in the fridge. 

Willow raised her eyebrows and steered her attention back to breakfast. As much as Faith hated to admit it, she did pretty much sleep with every one of Buffy’s exes. She couldn’t claim it wasn’t her fault, but just her damn libido and it’s not like she really wanted to sleep with them. It was just to blow off steam when beating up vampires wasn’t enough. She didn’t even like any of Buffy’s exes, they were just convenient and easy. Now, who wasn’t convenient and easy was B-

“Hey, why are you leaving now? School doesn’t start until eight fifteen,” Willow questioned.

What sounded like bowling balls being rolled down the stairs erupted from above them and it rang closer and closer. Along with high pitched squeals and shrieks. 

“To avoid that,” Buffy said and she slipped out the backdoor. 

Willow and Faith stood, perplexed. “Have a good day at work, sweetie,” Willow said weakly, waving with a spatula. 

“That was my CD!” Dawn yelled as she and the potential Slayers clamored into the kitchen.

“No, it wasn’t! Once you said, ‘here you go’, it became mine,” voiced Kennedy. 

“It’s called ‘borrowing’! Meaning you give it back,” Dawn said. 

“Then I am just borrowing it for an extended period of time,” Kennedy replied innocently. “Thank God that’s the only thing I have to borrow,” she said in a low voice as she wrapped her arms around Willow’s waist and nuzzled into the back of her neck. 

“Gross,” Amanda commented. 

“Seconded,” Rona said with a gag.

“Good morning, baby,” Willow smiled, tilting her head back into the gesture. 

“So,” Faith clapped her hands together to divert the attention of the potentials away from the Slayer and witch action. “Dawn, burn another copy. Girls, eat up, training in ten minutes, then school.” 

The girls groaned good-naturedly and ate the eggs Willow prepared. Once those were gone, they gathered outside for sparring practice as the boys, Giles, Xander, and (occasionally) Andrew woke up. Faith stood on the back porch and watched Kennedy lead the session. As irritating as she was, she was always a good teacher’s assistant. Sometimes she got a little too into the role with calling girls “maggots” and whatnot, but it got them to train with aggression. Sometimes fear, but mostly aggression. That’s the only way Faith knew how to fight, or do anything really. With a shitload of aggression. 

“Shit!” Faith gasped when Dawn approached her from behind. 

“Geez, jumpy much?” Little Summers asked. 

Not being able to conjure a quick one-liner back, Faith said, “I guess,” cracking her neck to the side. “Start of the school year, makes my skin crawl.”

“Not like you have to go back,” the girl quipped. “And didn’t you not even finish high school?” she narrowed her brows. 

Faith scrunched her face, “Not the point! Just the whole hellmouth part two thing isn’t the most settling.”

“I getcha, but I think we’ve got it covered,” she smiled and looked to the dozen girls in the perimeter of the classic white picket fence and area of the green grass vigorously throwing and dodging punches. “Besides, you did a pretty great job at the last apocalypse.” 

Faith couldn’t help but feel flushed at the compliment. Little Summers hadn’t exactly been the most welcoming when Faith came back; it was totally understandable, of course. Faith never gave up the opportunity to make fun of her for being created only a few years ago, and to be a key of all things. To be a tool used in something much greater (which she usually is around the house, anyway (Faith mentally slapped herself for the mean-spirited joke)). Truth is, the kid was growing on her and she did feel a great sense of responsibility over Dawn. In a motherly or sisterly way, she didn’t know, and frankly, it didn’t really matter. 

“Thanks,” Faith beamed. “So did you,” she added and Dawn bounced on her the balls of her feet, basking in the momentary pride. “Now round of the troops, first day of school’s a bitch, Little Summers,” Faith ruffled the younger girl’s hair. Dawn scrunched her nose and escaped the touch. 

“I’m taller than Buffy!” she exclaimed. “And you.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Faith teased. 

The girls got ready for school fairly quickly and were gone even quicker. Faith didn’t realize how lonely the house would be once school started. The potentials were gone, Xander was at his new construction site, Giles was opening The Magic Shop 2.0 (she forgot what the new shop was called), Buffy was out scaring straight delinquents, and Willow was researching spells in preparation for the next big bad. 

“Hey, Faith,” Andrew said. Right, that’s who she forgot. Andrew. He was pleasant to talk to in small doses. He was more of an errand boy than a Scooby.

“Hey there, Andrew,” Faith mischievously grinned and leaned her elbows against the countertop. 

“What?” he asked nervously. 

She extended her arms, “Nothing, nothing.” Andrew was a great kid and all, but asking him this question would mean swallowing every ounce of pride she had left (which wasn’t a whole lot). “Whatcha doing today?”

His eyes lit up. “Oh,” he sighed happily. “Actually I was going to watch the Star Wars trilogy for the twenty-third time and then play D&D online,” he said casually. “Did you know they have that? D&D online? The internet is crazy,” Andrew trailed off with a worrisome tone in anticipation of Faith yelling about how she doesn’t care. The old Faith would have, of course, but this one needed to be nice and cool and collected for Buffy since she’s been like a ticking time bomb of emotion ever since Sunnydale. Or just for everyone, and herself. Not only for Buffy. 

Faith let out a long breath of air before announcing, more to herself than to Andrew, “Yeah, I’m going to go find Willow.”

On her way out of the kitchen and into the basement she could hear Andrew mutter, “Okay, bye, I’ll do the dishes.”

Two knuckles knocked against the basement wall. Willow sat on a large white shag rug atop of the unfinished flooring. In front of her sat a clay pot with a few candles surrounding it. Behind her was a low-to-the-ground king size bed (that Buffy and Willow shared) and a dresser on either side. On the back wall were dark red curtains covering the high rectangular windows to, she guessed, keep sunlight from peering through as Willow did whatever spell she did. 

A green sprig began to grow from the pot and it swirled into a peddled lily, until Willow looked up. 

“Fooey,” she said as the flower caved in on itself. 

Faith winced, “Shoot, I’m sorry.”

Willow smiled when Faith attempted to retreat from the room, “Hey, that’s okay. How you doin’?”

“Badly now that I ruined your flower,” Faith guiltily smiled and leaned against the wall. “What were you doing anyway? Looked cool.”

“It’s a regrowth spell,” Willow began. “I’ve been doing little spells like this everyday to keep my strength up in case of a new big bad.”

It wasn’t comforting to be reminded of something new out to kill her and the rest of the gang. (Heh, she’s part of the gang now.) But it hasn’t presented itself yet, and hopefully it never will. This new domestic life was something Faith could get used to.

“Want to try?” the witch asked, her voice rising in pitch.

Stunned, Faith couldn’t speak a word. She only pointed to herself with raised eyebrows.

Willow laughed softly, “Yeah, silly. Come here.” 

Hesitantly, Faith sat cross legged in front of Willow. Their knees were close together and the pot sat between them. Willow intrusted with to hold her hands. She held them out casually and Faith complied. Her own hands were clammy compared to Willow’s softness, and she felt embarrassed. The witch before her smiled and instructed Faith to concentrate, though Faith wasn’t really sure on what. 

A tingle gradually made its way from Faith’s palms to her head, and then to her feet; similar to the tingle she felt when she held the scythe. It felt strong. She felt strong. She felt the same way the night she and Buffy switched bodies. Like she could do anything in the goddamn world and no one could stop her. Like she could finally tell Buffy--

Faith retracted her hands quickly, gasping. A small lily, just as before, had grown, and this time did not dwindle. Its pedals curled beautifully. 

“Whoa,” Faith said as she leaned back onto her palms. “How did--”

Willow smiled at the Slayer’s surprise. “I did the same spell, and I channelled it through you. I-I know the power can be kind of intense,” she grimaced. 

“Yeah, I can see why you got addicted to that stuff,” Faith said without thinking. “Sorry.”

“No, no, it’s okay. It’s addicting. Buffy was taken aback, too, the first time I did a spell with her,” she said. 

“Buffy’s dabbled in magic?” she laughed in shock. Faith never pegged her for a witchy-type. Probably because she was so far on the slayer role. 

“Oh yeah, when I first got into magic junior year, Buff and I did a lot together. Nothing big, just making pencils float and,” she pointed to the flower between them, “acceletating plant growth.” She smiled, reminiscing about her and her best friend’s time in high school, but then she looked at the ground and her voice trailed off. “That is until Aaron Brinkley asked Jessica Meyer to the Bronze in front of Buffy in chemistry and she set his chair on fire.”

Faith’s eyes went wide and she tried not to smile. 

“It was an accident!” she clarified. “But after that we both decided it was a good idea to cut her off.”

Faith couldn’t hold it in any longer and she burst out laughing. 

“Don’t laugh, she really liked him!” Willow insisted. 

“It’s just hard to imagine Buff goin’ all jealous like that,” Faith laughed. “Oh wait, no it isn’t. She did try to kill me over a guy before, I mean-” she attempted to joke, but Willow cut her off. 

“For a guy.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Faith waved her off. “It was a long time ago.”

“If it’s any consolation, I did kill someone for-- you know,” Willow stuttered.

Faith smiled and put a hand on the witch’s knee. “That was also a long time ago,” she concealed.

Willow winced and stood up, “Now might not be the best time to ask this, after going down memory lane, but--”

Furrowing her brows, Faith leaned back on her palms again. The witch cracked her knuckles and paced in a short line. 

“--you know how Dawn has been considering moving into Rona and Charlotte's room, with those potenti-- slayers?”

Shrugging, Faith asked, “Yeah? What’s that got to do with me? I can’t wait to no longer sleep on the floor.” Dawn’s one for personal space, and so is Faith, so they’ve made a deal where Faith sleeps on the floor. It’s not a bad floor when layered to the max with blankets and pillows, but it is getting old. And painful.

“Well, see, Dawn would take Kennedy’s bed, and so Kennedy would move in with me, and--”

Then it hit her. What Willow was suggesting. “No way!” Faith scambled to her feet. “I’m not sharing a room with Buffy!” 

Willow’s eyebrows cocked and she pleaded, “Faith, please!”

“Nuh-uh! No way! She can bunk with the potentials or-or with Andrew, I don’t care as long as it’s not with me,” Faith shook her head.

“The girls’ rooms are already a fire hazard as is,” Willow loosened her shoulders from their defensive raise.

“Will,” Faith whined. Using the witch’s nickname still felt weird; it probably always will. Only her friends used it, which now included Faith strangely enough. 

Willow’s eyebrows raised, begging for the room switch and probably begging for the Slayer not to punch her because Faith really though she might. 

“Please? For me?” she clasped her hands together near her face. 

Defeated, Faith whined once more and stopped her foot like a child. After a long inhale, she sighed, “Fine.”

Willow’s face lit up and she bounced up and down. 

“But only if Buffy sleeps on the floor,” the Slayer pointed at her. “I’m not getting booted again.”


End file.
